Removing Bees nest

Sat 21 Jun 2014, 11:08

I had a swarm arrive at my studio a few weeks ago and they settled in the walls of the barn building right outside my windows. I was concerned at the time and minded to get rid of them but they come and go from the nest and are no trouble at all and I have found that I can have my windows open and so far they have not bothered coming in. It is rather lovely to have them here.

Fri 20 Jun 2014, 23:33

Just to clarify the position for others. A swarm is a group of worker bees and their queen bee and the primary role of the workers is to protect the queen. So they will remain where she is, or return to where she is. Therefore, in order to deal with a swarm, you need to ensure that you remove not only the worker bees, but also the queen around whom they are clustered. So a bee keeper can remove swarms from bushes or accessible branches of trees, or even somewhere like a fence post that they can be gently brushed off. These bees can be removed and re-homed because they can be shaken into a skep, or other receptacle, and with shaking not only the workers but also the queen are likely to be drop into the receptacle. Unfortunately, if a swarm actually gets into the fabric of a building, there is no way of removing the queen. So our advice is, if the bees are not causing any concern, leave them. You are lucky to have them as they are a vital element in the food chain and are currently subject to a range of "threats". But if they are causing concern, particularly where someone is actually allergic to their stings, then unfortunately this is a problem that needs to be dealt with by pest control.

Fri 20 Jun 2014, 20:19

Well done for that Suzy, bees are not normaly too agressive John

Fri 20 Jun 2014, 18:30

Many thanks, John. As the bees' nest isn't easily accessible (in the eaves), Janet at the honey farm said Geoff can't help and we would have to get someone to kill the bees. As I don't want to kill them, we're just going to keep our windows near the nest shut all summer!

Wed 18 Jun 2014, 15:35

Our local bee keeper is Geoff at Halcion Honey on the woodstock rd. Phone

01608 810260 he will be able to help. John H

Wed 18 Jun 2014, 14:53

Is there anyone locally who I could get to remove a bees nest from our eaves, please?